Cross-border destination development for inclusive and sustainable tourism in the Slovenian-Hungarian border area

In 2023, we developed the application entitled "Cross-border destination development for inclusive and sustainable tourism in the Slovenian-Hungarian border area" (CROSSDEST), which we submitted jointly with Hungarian and Slovenian municipalities and tourist organizations to the Interreg VI-A Slovenia-Hungary 2021- in the 2027 program in January 2024. The application was supported, implementation will start in autumn 2024.

The total budget of the project: 936,312.00 Euro

ERDF grant amount: 585,685.20 Euro

Partners:

- Hévíz Tourism Nonprofit Limited Liability Company

- Pannon European Territorial Partnership with Limited Liability

- Murska Sobota Development Center

- Lendva Tourism and Development Institute

- Goodplace is the institute of sustainable tourism

- Sárvár Tourist & TDM Nonprofit Limited Liability Company

- Innotime Hungary Consulting and Service Provider Limited Liability Company

Currently, 90% of all guest nights in Slovenia are in destinations certified in the Green Destinations (GD) system accredited by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), and more and more sustainably certified attractions and tourism service providers are available within the Slovenia Green program. Today, sustainability determines the thinking of all players in tourism nationwide, including the guests who visit here.

Sustainable tourism development in Hungary, on the other hand, is still in its infancy. However, the international pressure is becoming more and more apparent, as the lack of sustainability certification recognized by the GSTC reduces the competitiveness of the region, which is a difficult task to overcome, since it is necessary to simultaneously shape the public's attitude, develop sustainable systems, improve the sustainability of individual service providers and the destination brand also deal with its transformation.

Today, more than two-thirds of the world's travelers are looking for sustainable destinations. However, the Slovenian-Hungarian border region can only meet this condition as a unified, sustainable destination if the Hungarian destinations also reach GSTC sustainable certification, and since there is no sustainable destination without sustainable service providers, as many attractions and tourist services as possible are acquired by the sustainable tourism sector. certification, and in parallel, a cross-border tourism network will be established, the members of which recommend each other and develop joint tourism products under the umbrella of a unified sustainability brand.

The four settlements connected to the project are individually known internationally, independently, although with a constantly changing target audience after COVID. However, in order for the region to become a unified, cross-border destination, where thanks to the cooperation of the project partners, a group of returning guests with longer stays is formed, the following problems need to be addressed:
- significant differences in readiness in terms of sustainability and accessibility as two basic values
- lack of a comprehensive quality management program through which priority target groups can receive uniform services that take into account international standards (e.g. families, people arriving with pets, cyclists, seniors)
- since all of these are missing, there is no unified and complete information system that would provide up-to-date and personalized information on the tourist offer of the region on both sides of the border, including local products
- since the tourism operators do not know each other and the local producers, the other operators of the region do not appear in the offer of the individual settlements, and they cannot build on the advantages of the circular economy more widely.

The main outcomes of the project
- In the framework of the program, building on Muraszombat's good practice, the others also obtain the GD qualification, while for Muraszombat the min. the goal is to reach a silver level.

- A pilot program will be implemented at each of the four locations, the purpose of which is to strengthen regenerative tourism. The developed programs will be transferable to each other.

- As a result of the project, min. 20 attractions and min. 40 service providers are also being prepared to obtain the GD Good Travel Seal certification.

- A pilot program supporting the circular economy will be prepared, which can be used by all four settlement partners.

- A unified quality management and monitoring system that complies with international standards and takes sustainability into account will be prepared.

- Based on GD standards, all partners will work on the basis of a uniform methodology.

- Innotime is developing the digital platform with the help of which all partners can continuously monitor their results and the sustainability index of their own destination and tourist services.

- An e-learning course material presenting the criteria of sustainable tourism and the values ​​of the border region, available to all tourism service providers in the region, will be prepared.

- The service provider's preparation program, tourism service providers in the region could prepare for international certification in the framework of a uniform mentoring program, and local producers on both sides of the border will also be involved in the pilot program supporting the circular economy.

- At the end of the project, the settlements will be able to provide uniform horizontal quality services, and the attractions and tourism service providers will be able to develop new cross-border products by knowing each other's services.

The project consists of 4 main elements:

 Within the framework of the project, a unified quality management system will be developed, which, based on the unified standards defined by the GSTC, supports the implementation of sustainable tourism development at both the destination and service provider level, as well as helps the uniform preparation of destinations, attractions and tourism service providers to meet international expectations for horizontal aspects. by the end of the preparation program, the destinations included in the project will obtain the Green Destinations international certification, and at least 40 tourism service providers will be able to access the international Good Travel Seal certification.
 During the implementation of the program, a uniform monitoring system will be prepared, which is connected to the European Commission's Common European Tourism Data Space, and, using a uniform indicator system and based on a uniform data collection methodology, provides indexing to destinations and tourism service providers about their own level of service, and that with this index number where it is included in the offer within the region.
 Within the framework of the project, each project partner municipality develops a tourism product, the purpose of which is to present the services that build on sustainable tourism in a coordinated way within the destination. The aim of the pilot projects is to support various experience-oriented presentations of sustainability, supplemented by a fine-tuning period supporting the implementation.
 In order for individual guests to be able to organize their cross-border trips and holidays as easily as possible, and for tourism service providers to be able to find partners as quickly as possible during the development of joint tourism packages and products, it is necessary to create a tourism database created on the basis of uniform principles, in which at least the participants in the project the services of the customer's four destinations are available, and in the future it may be possible to display additional service providers. An important goal of the project is the development of this database and the uniform involvement of service providers in the region in order to make the widest possible selection available.

The tender is co-financed by the European Union and supported by the Hungarian Government.